Skip ahead to page content

entitlements.jpg

What real health care reform looks like

June 19, 2009 | By Nathaniel Ward

In an open letter to the President and members of Congress, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner offers a robust rebuttal to the administration's proposed big-government health care reforms.

Conservative concerns about his proposal are not simply "scare-tactics" as the President has suggested, Feulner writes. Instead they're a response to the sketchy details and dubious promises on which the health care plan is based.

Feulner reminds the President that the task at hand is to "fix the gaps in our health care system and lower costs for all Americans," which requires concrete reforms, not government micromanagement.

But while the Left remains confident their plan will pass — one proponent said "the planets have aligned as they never have before" — conservatives and moderates are increasingly alarmed about its cost.

Citing the ever-growing budget requirements for big-government health care, Heritage expert Ernest Istook says the price tag "might as well be a made-up number like 'gazillion.'"

A new Heritage Foundation graphic (PDF format) helps illustrate the difference between the conservative and progressive approaches.

» What would a real health care reform look like? Find out on MyHeritage.org

A memorial to communism's victims

Two decades ago, even as communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe, the Chinese communists brutally repressed a citizen uprising at Tiananmen Square. On Tuesday, a ceremony was held at the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington to commemorate these anniversaries and honor the 100 million lives lost to communism in the twentieth century.

"As we mark the twentieth anniversaries of the Tiananmen Square student protests and the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is becoming clear that many people are beginning to forget the atrocities of communism and are ignoring the perils of totalitarian governments," said Heritage Foundation scholar Lee Edwards, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

To ensure current and future generations don't forget, Tuesday also marked the launch of the online Global Museum on Communism, an resource designed to educate the current and future generations about the history, philosophy, and barbaric legacy of communism.

Edwards, a leading historian of the conservative movement, has made it his personal mission to remind the world of the past and present brutalities committed in the name of Karl Marx's utopian fantasy.

"Truth will penetrate the walls of tyranny in communist China, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea with the launch of the online Global Museum on Communism," said Edwards. The website launch was broadcast simultaneously around the world, including to many communist-controlled countries, via technology capable of bypassing state censors.

The online museum offers emotional stories, interactive videos, inspirational essays and various detailed glimpses into the lives of those oppressed by communism. Site visitors will have the opportunity to submit personal accounts of their experiences with communism.

- Amanda Reinecker     

Other Heritage work of note

  • The projected $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009 isn't merely an inherited problem or a temporary result of the recession, writes Heritage budget policy analyst Brian Riedl. It's a result of "an unprecedented avalanche of government debt" and spending. And future spending plans will cause the nation to run an average deficit of nearly $1 trillion a year for ten years and "dump $84,352 per household of new debt into the laps of our children and grandchildren over the next decade."
  • For the past 35 years, the Heritage Foundation has worked unceasingly to advance conservative ideas in Washington. As the congressional debates heat up on the Waxman-Markey "cap-and-tax" global warming bill, we learn that Heritage research and analysis on the proposed legislation has been twice cited on the floor of the House of Representatives. Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) cited the pernicious effects the plan would have on electricity costs and Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) cited Heritage analysis of how the bill would increase unemployment.
  • As protests continue after last Friday's elections in Iran, "President Obama must make it clear that the United States stands with the Iranian people, not with the repressive Islamist regime," writes Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has remained largely silent in the hopes of fostering stronger ties with the regime. Phillips warns, however, that "turning a blind eye" will not send the necessary message and will do little to advance either American foreign policy interests or those of the Iranian people. For the latest on Iran, visit the Iran Briefing Room.

In other news

  • The military has deployed missile defenses to Hawaii to guard against a potential North Korean launch. The ongoing crisis with North Korea should demonstrate to the Left that missile defenses are an essential means to protect America.
  • Despite proposing some of the largest-ever government intrusions into the private sector, President Obama insists that he strives for a "light touch." Defending his invasive policies as the "rules of the road" for recovery, he's also pushing for increased federal powers to seize financial institutions deemed economically risky by government bureaucrats.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage's website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Amanda Reinecker contributed to this report.